Discussants of various backgrounds, including from various branches of ethics, spoke of difficulties in crisis management, as well as the particularly topical question of mandatory vaccines. A key aspect raised by all the panellist that took part was ‘communication’, more specifically, what can be learnt from the current crisis and applied for a future crisis in terms of communicating not only among professionals and decision makers, but beyond, to ensure engagement with wider audiences.

The panellists and participants observed that communication was not always ‘inclusive’ of all members of society. One main aim, in the aftermath of this pandemic, should similar pandemics occur, is the need for more transparent and inclusive communication measures.

An additional observation included the importance of balancing various interests involved, with politicians and crisis managers having to take into account aspects of liberty, health as well as the protection of vulnerable groups in an environment marked by uncertainties and exacerbated by diverging views of experts from different fields.